When will rubble ever be cleared in Haiti?

Before Haiti and international donors can rebuild this devastated city, they must first destroy it. ¶ The task of knocking down, smashing apart and hauling away the mountain range of rubble left by the Jan. 12 earthquake will take years and cost as much as $1 billion, according to some estimates. ¶ "I have heard the president say that based on what the engineers tell him, it will take 1,000 dump trucks working for 1,000 days to clear away the debris, and I am not sure even the experts know how big is the pile," said Leslie Voltaire, an architect and diplomat who is leading the effort to plan Haiti's reconstruction. ¶ U.N. rapid assessment teams estimate there's 30 million to 78 million cubic yards of broken blocks, twisted metal and pulverized concrete -- enough to fill the Louisiana Superdome, from playing field to roof, up to 17 times. ¶ "How long did it take to remove the Twin Towers after 9/11? It took them two years, and that was in New York City, and it cost a lot of money. We are Port-au-Prince, and our government doesn't have any money," said Philippe Cineas, director general of a construction company that has cleared rubble from five sites, including a bank "where we had to work very slowly, very carefully, because they were looking for the vault."

WASHINGTON POST